weather

Paper summary: the world’s longest known series of parallel temperature data: Adelaide, 1887–1947

Parallel weather observations are crucial for combining historical weather observations with modern records, so we can accurately see what our climate was like back in time. Most datasets go for two or three years, but in Adelaide, Australia, Government Astronomer and Meteorologist Charles Todd and his team took measurements in two thermometer stands for almostContinue reading “Paper summary: the world’s longest known series of parallel temperature data: Adelaide, 1887–1947”

Australia’s meteorological anniversary

Today is the anniversary of the First Fleet’s arrival in Sydney Cove, only 228 years ago. A defining moment, certainly, although more and more people agree that the 26th of January is not the right day to honour all things Australian. To commemorate the date, let’s have a look at Australia’s earliest weather observations. Their history, funnilyContinue reading “Australia’s meteorological anniversary”

The week it was hot

And continued to be hot. And still is hot. Wearing bathers around the house, sleeping in the living room under the fan, covering windows with wet towels, giving up on the balcony plants, staying at work until late because that’s where the AC is, eating watermelon for dinner kind of hot. A heatwave is currentlyContinue reading “The week it was hot”

The week of wind

Despite the fact that my job is all about the atmosphere, the one thing that is guaranteed to ruin my day is wind. Not passing wind, that’s hilarious, but unrelenting, tree-bending, dust-blowing, hair-mussing wind that come from air migrating from one spot to another.

28 June 1836: Snowfall in Sydney

My PhD was on the past climate of southeastern Australia. This involved looking at lots of different sources of old weather data from the 1800s. Newspapers, government records and farmer’s diaries: each source an important clue to the history of Australia’s climate. While my work focussed mainly on quantitative data (numbers) rather than qualitative descriptionsContinue reading “28 June 1836: Snowfall in Sydney”